Tax fatigue may have led to defeat of Erie's police station

Measure narrowly loses, though provisional ballots being counted

Chief John Hall squeezes down the crowded hallway in the Erie Police Department offices in 2010. (Mark Leffingwell/Camera file photo)

Erie Issue 2A, unofficial final results

Total votes cast: 10,199

Boulder County:

Yes -- 2,483

No -- 2,211

Up to 78 provisional ballots and up to 38 unreconciled regular ballots could be added to final tally.

Weld County:

Yes -- 2,602

No -- 2,903

Up to 193 provisional ballots and up to 40 unreconciled regular ballots could be added to final tally.

Sources: Elections divisions in Weld and Boulder counties

Just six months after a survey revealed that most Erie residents strongly favored a bond issue that would fund construction of a $6.2 million police and courts building, the tax hike appears to have been narrowly defeated at the ballot box.

Unofficial final results from Weld and Boulder counties show that only 29 votes separate the "no" tally from the "yes" column -- out of nearly 10,200 cast -- but the margin just misses the threshold to trigger an automatic recount. As the counties process provisional and problematic mail-in ballots over the next week or so, results could change.

But for now, those who earlier this year saw the tax increase as a sure thing are left scratching their heads. Theories began to emerge Wednesday as to why Issue 2A -- which would have raised the tax on each $100,000 value of a home by $12.30 a year -- didn't prevail with voters.

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Trustee Janice Moore said the measure was largely harmed by another tax increase request that appeared on many ballots in Erie -- St. Vrain Valley School District's $14.8 million mill levy override to hire more teachers and upgrade technology in schools. It passed Tuesday.

The St. Vrain measure -- Issue 3A -- wasn't part of the discussion when Erie residents were surveyed in May about raising property taxes for an 18,000-square-foot police station at the southwest corner of Telleen Avenue and County Line Road.

The survey, which showed that residents backed the new facility 62 percent to 34 percent, prompted the Board of Trustees to put the bond issue on the ballot.

"Voters saw the choice of funding public schools or funding a public safety facility, and they chose schools," Moore said. "People are saying maybe we need to wait."

"I think if St. Vrain hadn't put its initiative on the ballot, we'd be OK," he said. "Taxpayers weren't going to tax themselves twice."

He said he also heard grumblings from several constituents about the town's decision in July to spend $1.1 million on a state-of-the-art skate park. Gruber was one of three trustees to vote against funding the Street League-certified course, calling the expenditure "frivolous and fiscally irresponsible."

"There may have been 29 people out there who were angry enough about the skate park that they voted 'no' on the police facility," he said. "There were people who couldn't understand how we could spend that kind of money out of our coffers on a skate park as opposed to spending money to build a police facility."

Mayor Joe Wilson said while the school district tax hike didn't help Issue 2A, voters may have been expressing a broader dissatisfaction about debt and the skyrocketing levels of public expenditure at the state and federal levels.

"I think people are becoming more aware of debt and the government's role in creating more debt," he said.

He also said the facility might have been a bit too extravagant for taxpayers' appetites and that a building on the order of $2 million to $3 million might have gone over better.

All of the trustees interviewed Wednesday said the need for a bigger and better police headquarters remains, despite what happened at the ballot box. Erie's police force and municipal court operate out of a cramped, 2,400-square-foot space in the basement of Erie Town Hall, where police bicycles are stored in the bathroom and prosecutors conduct interviews in the stairwell.

Chief John Hall declined to comment on the defeat of the measure Wednesday.

In the time being, Wilson said the town will consider moving police operations to unused buildings in town to provide additional space for the 21-officer force.

And don't be surprised if the issue appears on a future ballot, Gruber said.

"The need to have a better facility for the police hasn't changed," he said.

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